Lisa ran into the bathroom, with black streaks running down her once made up, pretty face. She stared at herself in the mirror with disgust.

How could she have been so stupid? Why had she believed his lies, once again? Will she ever learn?

“I hate you!” She screamed, hitting her fists hard against the bathroom mirror. The mirror with the pretty, little flowers…the flowers she had painted on it earlier. But now she hated them, hated how they stared back at her, mocking her.

The girl who was wearing all black was staring at her. She didn’t want to look over at her, but she could feel the heaviness of her glare boring down on her. She sensed the girl was trying to get her attention, but January was lost in between the lyrics of the band screaming from the radio and the shouting she heard in the other room.

She decided to look her way, “Do you know when they will be out of the bedroom?”

“Who knows. They made a big score tonight…could be a while.”

“A score?” January didn’t know what this girl was talking about.

“Speed, of course.” The girl casually replied.

January was shocked. “Did you see Jack go into the room. He must have gone out for more beer.”

“Jack is the cute guy with longish, shoulder length hair and black eye-liner?”

“Yes, he’s my boyfriend, but he doesn’t use drugs, so I’m sure he must have slipped out when I didn’t notice.”

“No, he’s in there. I saw him and the tall, skinny guy go in together.”

The room started to spin…January wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the loud music or the distaste of her dinner rising up and into her throat, but she felt as if she was going to be sick.

January knew he only lied when he was using. She had lived with the cycle for long enough to see the subtle changes in his behavior. She used to laugh about it, saying he was two-faced, but in reality it wasn’t funny.

She had been living with this man’s ups and downs for nearly twenty-seven years.

“I’m not lying, baby.”

“I know you didn’t go to work today, Jack, your boss called.”

“What a prick. He has had it out for me since the first day I started.”

Jack always knew what to say. Nothing was ever his fault, it was always the other guy.

January had come to a point when she no longer fought, it was easier to just accept it. Her best friend had told her once, you made your bed, now lie in it. She guessed she had.

“Jack, what are we going to do. We need money for our mortgage.”

“Don’t worry baby, I will get you the money.”

“How? You just lost your job.” January cried.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head, I will take care of it and have your mortgage money to you by Friday.”

It was always Friday, but he could no longer keep his promises. His lies were starting to catch up with him, they were drowning him and her and their family. Poor Bella, she didn’t deserve any of this.

“Jack, I can’t take this anymore. You always get fired after two weeks, why is that?”

“I told you baby, he was a prick. I will find another job, didn’t I tell you not to worry?”

“Hi, Daddy, are we going to have to move again?” Bella had just walked into our conversation, holding her ice cream in her hand, as it melted, dripping down her arm.

It was always the same story, but nothing was getting better. She knew why he lost his job after two weeks, it wasn’t because of any other reason, but he was using again.

He had just gotten paid two days before and now he had changed, January saw it, his boss saw it, and now Bella saw it.

I have to say that my traveling experience through California was one of the most memorable and beautiful trips I’ve taken in a long time. Our day started early, packing our car with our bags, snacks, and dog. We had to laugh at how many snacks we had in our bags…

“Where are you going? China.” My daughter asked.

“We might as well” I stated, traveling up the entire state of California is quite a journey, fourteen hours to be exact.

The first six hours are long and boring, not a whole lot to see, traveling through Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and then Modesto County…quite dry and yellow, not much green and hardly any mountains.

Once we hit San Francisco, the scenery drastically changed from dry to lush green. It was quite majestic to say the least.

My favorite part of our drive was after we went through San Francisco and traveled north of Marin County. There were lush, green trees everywhere, vineyards, rolling hills and streams and rivers.

Pictures don’t do the landscape justice; however, your camera is a must. A picture lasts a lifetime and compliments our memories in our mind.

I am glad to have marked off on of my bucket list item and strongly recommend a trip up the coast of California. Your reward is your adventure and it has only started once you’ve reached the beaches of Trinidad.

January stood frozen, in front of her New York window flat. She was alone. It seemed as if she had been alone forever, although it had only been seven days since he left.

She wondered if he would return or leave her to deal with her devastating news alone. She hoped he would come back, but by the look upon his face and the hateful words he had spoken, she wasn’t so sure.

Actually, she wasn’t so sure of anything anymore. The disease had left her numb and afraid.

She wasn’t thinking about herself anymore, as her gaze caught something magical, down on the street below her expensive Brownstone. She was on the fifth floor of her apartment flat, but her eyesight was still good, thank goodness she still had that.

She had to smile. Young love was wonderful, she thought.

She vividly remembered when she and Jack had been so young and naive in love. She had loved him more than life itself back then.

“What happened to us?” She said out loud, even though she was the only one in the room.

The echo of the silence sharply snapped back at her. Relentless, she let the tears fall from her face, no longer caring about her make-up smearing or how she looked.

Jack was consumed with worry. He pondered over if he would be able to fulfill his promise to her, but he knew with all his heart that he intended to try his hardest to keep his word and honor to the only woman he had ever loved or would love…

“Mimi, it is. I just feel so lost without Jack.” January said, biting down on her lip.

“I know you are sweetie. Have you visited him lately?”

“Not really. It’s so hard. He’s still really angry with me. I guess I deserve it.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You don’t deserve any of this.”

“I’m not so sure about that. It is my fault Jack isn’t here right now.”

“Jan, it is definitely not your fault. Jack made his own choices. You didn’t force his hand into getting back into meth nor did you make him get onto his motorcycle, when he was totally high.” Mimi said, nursing the rest of her wine.

“Mimi, now you’re not being fair. If I wouldn’t have pushed him so hard and driven him to be so damn perfect, in only my sense of course, none of this would have happened!”